IAS officer issues certificate to son, Khemka cries fraud

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 8

IAS officer Ashok Khemka has written to Chairman, Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC), and Chief Secretary over a fraud leading to issuance of Grade-A type sports certificate to Vishawajeet Singh, son of IAS officer Jagdeep Singh, which resulted in his selection as Haryana Civil Service (HCS) officer.

The HPSC results for HCS (executive cadre) were declared on December 19, 2019. There were five candidates with Grade-A sports certificate in HCS exam including Vishwajeet Singh.

Jagdeep Singh, as Director Sports, had issued the certificate to his son on his last day in office (June 12 2018) before being transferred.

Chief Secretary Keshni Anand Arora said, “We have sent IAS officer Khemka’s letter to the Sports Department for comments.”

Vishwajeet Singh claimed International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) was the organising authority of ISSF Junior Cup-2014 held at Suhl, Germany, from May 26, 2014 to June 1, 2014. For it, he claimed gradation certificate.

“The declaration is wrong. The organising authority was Deutsche Schutzenbund eV (DSB), the German national shooting federation,” wrote Khemka in his letter dated December 27, 2019.

The result of the ISSF Junior Cup-2014 is not posted on ISSF website, but is available on the DSB website. “The tournament did not qualify for sports gradation under the notification of May 25, 2018. Moreover, the revised notification of November 15, 2018, completely foreclosed all international tournaments, other than World Cup/Championship, for sports gradation,” added Khemka in his letter.

Vishwajeet claimed that he had got silver medal in ISSF Junior Cup-2014. But as per the score sheet of the tournament, he got 16th rank in the 25m Sport Pistol Men Junior event.

“The medal was not given on a team game,” said Khemka. It was based on team score obtained by aggregating the individual scores of three shooters ranked third (Neeraj Kumar); 15th (Samarjit Singh) and 16th (Vishwajeet) representing India in the individual event.

Khemka pointed out that as per a Sports Department notification, Vishwajeet was not eligible for sports quota as a show-cause notice for recovery of excess cash awards against him was yet to be finally disposed of.

The whistle-blower officer alleged that the conduct of present Director Sports not to revoke Vishwajeet’s certificate despite notification of November 15, 2018, makes his role “dubious”.

Jagdeep Singh was appointed as Special Invitee in the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI). Khemka said that had he apprised him about it, he — as Principal Secretary, Sports and Youth Welfare — would have recommended his transfer.

Khemka said, “Abusers of public offices, after being caught, manage to hoodwink their misconduct by readily crawling before the masters who then make such public servants their private servants, always ready to serve them at their beck and call. Timely action is our duty and is the real deterrent against such frauds by those who occupy public offices.”